All brooms, large or small and of different shapes and designs, rely on the bristles to sweep materials. The bristles can be long or short and stiff or very flexible.
Brooms with stiff bristles are better for sweeping large, hard objects, or very thin, light objects, like leaves, while the softer bristle brooms are best for sweeping up finer materials such as dirt, sand and dust. The type of ground or floor one is sweeping on also dictates the type of broom that is best for the material to be swept.
FIG. 1A provides a schematic of a conventional broom 10 having a handle 14 attached to a broom base or head 12 and bristles 16 attached to the head 12. Regardless, all brooms, regular or push brooms, have the same basic problem when the bristles 16 meet the material 19 they are intended to sweep regardless of the surface 18; the bristles 16 bend and fold under the head 12 of the broom 10 allowing the bristles to glide or ride over the material 19 being swept. As a result, one has to sweep over the same material several times to sweep it up. Moreover, in order to compensate for the bristles gliding or riding over the material being swept, the person sweeping usually has to try to keep the broom bristles as perpendicular to the ground as much as possible in order for the bristles to have more of a bite and not glide over the material being swept in order for the sweeping to be more effective.
Another way to compensate for the bristles gliding over the material being swept is to use a broom with very stiff bristles. This has its drawbacks as brooms with stiff bristles have a hard time sweeping the finer/smaller material being swept up. The smaller/finer material necessitates the use of more concentrated finer bristles.
Attempts to improve the effectiveness of conventional brushes or brooms have included, as shown in FIG. 1B, melting the ends of all of the bristles 16 forming lumps 20 at the ends of the bristles 16. See, e.g., U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2005/0285439 A1 and Japanese Patent No. JP-403236804A. The lumps 20, however, tend to only marginally improve the sweeping effectiveness of the broom 11 with regard to large, hard objects, while tending to reduce the broom's 11 effectiveness when it comes to sweeping fine or small material. As depicted in FIG. 1B, as the bristles 16 bend and fold under the head 12 of the broom 11, the bristles 16 and lumps 20 still tend to glide or ride over the material 19 being swept, requiring the user to sweep over the same material several times to sweep it up.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a broom or brush with bristles that can effectively and efficiently sweep both large and fine materials at the same time while reducing the number of times one must sweep over the same material regardless of the type of ground or floor one is sweeping on.